Neil Coyle: Labour readmits MP suspended over 'drunken abuse'

Neil Coyle has been reinstated as a Labour MP, following a Commons suspension for breaching Parliament's harassment rules.

He was suspended as an MP for five days in March, after a parliamentary probe found he had made racist comments towards a journalist.

He was also found to have engaged in "foul-mouthed and drunken abuse" of a parliamentary assistant to another MP.

Labour sources said his conduct would be monitored by its chief whip.

Mr Coyle, the MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, was suspended by the party last year after allegations about his comments to the reporter emerged.

The move meant he had to sit as an independent MP in the House of Commons. He was also banned from bars in Parliament for six months.

In March, he was found to have used "abusive language with racial overtones" towards political journalist Henry Dyer, who is of British-Chinese heritage, in a Commons bar in February 2022.

In a report, Parliament's Independent Expert Panel, which polices harassment rules, also said he had delivered an expletive-laden rant towards a parliamentary assistant to another MP in the same bar the month before.

Sir Stephen Irwin, who chairs the panel, said the "very marked abuse of alcohol" was "at the root" of both episodes.

In a Commons statement after the report was published, Mr Coyle apologised for his "drunk and offensive behaviour and attitude".

He said he had gone a year without drinking and pledged to "remain abstinent to offer the greatest chance for my own health to continue to improve".

Opposition chief whip Alan Campbell, in charge of party discipline, told a committee of Labour MPs he had met Mr Coyle on several occasions since the report was published and had sought reassurances about his conduct, party sources said.

Mr Campbell told Mr Coyle that drinking did not excuse his behaviour, but the party recognised the efforts he had made to address it, the sources added.

However, the decision to readmit him as a Labour MP was criticised by left-wing campaign group Momentum, which called the decision "shocking and disgusting".

"This shameful act exposes a system which is not fit for purpose," it said, adding that it showed a "loyalist" to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer had been "punished with nothing more than a slap on the wrists".

It's time to end this dangerous, politicised abuse of the Labour whip, and enact a truly independent process," it added.

The BBC has contacted Mr Coyle for a comment.